Is the Baseball Hall of Fame Tainted?

Jul 30, 2013; Boston, MA, USA; Former Boston Red Sox pitcher

acknowledges the fans during pre-game ceremonies prior to a game against the Seattle Mariners at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports

This current batch of Hall of Famers is a group of guys that deserved to get in, but there is another group of guys that, in my opinion, also deserve to get in that may not ever make it to the Hall of Fame. I am getting tired of hearing “the steroid era” every time we have a Hall of Fame vote for major league baseball. I may even be in the minority on this, but I think that it has been tainted at this point just like all of the baseball writers that vote on the hall think that the game has been tainted.

Some people are high and mighty in saying that they will never ever vote for any player who played in the steroid era, which means that Craig Biggio, Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter, Ivan Rodriguez and others who are very deserving will not get in if they had their way. Then there is the other side of the writers, the ones who think their vote doesn’t count anymore, writers like Dan Le Batard. We all know the stunt that he pulled, giving his vote to the website Deadspin. The funny thing to me was that the Deadspin ballot was actually better than some of the sports writers ballots. Go figure. But anyway, here are some of my reasons that I believe that the sterioid era players should get their chance to be in the Hall of Fame:

If I had a vote (and lucky for MLB I don’t) I would vote for most of the steroid guys to get in, guys like Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and I would also vote for Pete Rose, still the all time hits leader, to be in the Hall of Fame. The fact that Pete Rose is banned from the Hall of Fame for something he did after his playing career is crazy to me. I think what he did is reprehensible, and that he should be banned from all future involvement with major league baseball in any way, but he is the major league hits leader, and he deserves to be there. He was the major league hits leader long before he was banned from the game. My reason? The Hall of Fame is not just a place to honor the best of the best to ever play baseball, it is also a telling of the story of baseball, a museum for the history of baseball if you will. In my opinion, you can’t tell the history of baseball without talking about the era in question. It is a part of the history of the game, just like the Black Sox who threw a world series is a part of history that we all know about. Baseball can’t just tell the good parts of their history, but they have to cover their bad times as well. Plus, we all know they knew something was going on, even though they would never admit it.

So Dan Le Batard may have made a mockery of the voting process publicly, but I believe that the baseball writers have been doing that for years without his help. I am not sure that any of the deserving players from that era will ever get in, and to be honest with you, I do not like Bonds or Clemens personally, but that doesn’t mean they should be left out just because a few sports writers want to ignore them. If they put it up to a national vote, I believe that both of those men would be voted in, and I think that the writers may be surprised how much we, the general baseball loving public, would know what players deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. I may be off base, and if I am, feel free to tell me so. Thanks for reading.